I always knew that after I graduated I would miss being in high school. I just didn't know how much. I think I called my mom everyday during the first week of college. After all, I had been living in this small, close-knit town called Charleston, Missouri ever since I was three, and Mizzou is 40 times larger than the entire high school.

For those of you who don't know, Charleston is located just ten miles from where the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers meet and boasts a population of 5,280 people, including a couple cows here or there. Because of our small size, I was able to forge lasting friendships with my classmates, some of whom I still talk to today. My sister tells her friends in Columbia that she can still go to the Charleston Wal-Mart and run into at least one person she knows-- an unlikely act, in the big city.

I'm extremely proud to call myself part of the Fighting Bluejays and a member of the graduating class of 1995. During my senior year, I was Student Council president, editor of The Blue Print (all six issues of the school paper are to the left), and Trumpet section leader. I loved every minute of it, too.

The teachers at CHS were truly awesome people, and it showed that they cared. To this day, I couldn't be happier about the education I recieved while as a student and still wish that my time could have gone on longer.

I know that I will always remember the fun times at CHS: laying out the paper and taking it to the printers, celebrating Homecoming, and eating lunch with our friends. You only get one chance to be this young, and I'm glad I spent it at Charleston High School, home of the Fighting Bluejays.